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Monday, August 19, 2013

Blow Out the Candles August 19

Former Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson is celebrating his 78th birthday today.

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #53

October 1, 1960

Yankees Mickey Mantle (L), and Whitey Ford (R), make Bobby Richardson the center of attention here in the dressing room. Richardson knocked in six RBIs to lead the Yankees to a 10-0 win over the Pirates in the third game of the World Series. Mantle and Ford pitched the four hit shutout.

St. Petersburg, Florida Spring 1961

Boyer, Kubek, Richardson and Pepitone

Associated Press
The Yankees’ Bobby Richardson, without hat, caught Willie McCovey’s liner for the last out of Game 7 of the 1962 World Series. He said an umpire, right, had asked for his cap moments before the Series-ending play.

New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 2007 — Bobby Richardson saw his picture in The New York Times on Thursday and had to tell the story behind it.

“The thing I remember when McCovey came up, I was down in my position, ready, and the N.L. ump said, ‘Hey, Rich, can I have your cap for my little cousin?’ ” Richardson said Friday via cellphone, after arriving in San Francisco for this weekend’s reunion of the players from the 1962 World Series.
It was an odd request, coming with two outs and runners on second and third base and the Yankees leading theGiants, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game.
But Richardson, who on the next pitch caught a blistering line drive by Willie McCovey to end the Series, politely obliged. His catch redeemed starter Ralph Terry, the most valuable player of the Series, who had served up Bill Mazeroski’s Series-winning shot two years earlier in Pittsburgh.“The picture in The Times showed me running in to Ralph Terry, hatless,” Richardson said. “And in the background you can see the umpire looking down at the cap I gave him.”

Richardson lives in Sumter, S.C., where he was born in 1935. He flew in from Charlotte, N.C., on Friday with the Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry, a Giant in 1962. Perry pointed out Candlestick Park as they drove past it on the ride in from the airport. Richardson was there 20 years ago for an old-timers’ game but has not been back since.
He said he was looking forward to the reunion for a chance to see McCovey, whom he had never met despite their link in baseball history.
“In those days, we didn’t talk to the opposition too much,” Richardson said. “Felipe Alou and I had done a film together once, but unless McCovey ever stopped at second base, which I don’t think he ever did, we just didn’t have a chance to talk.”
Richardson said he moved to his left just before McCovey’s line drive. McCovey had pulled a long foul ball, and Richardson said he expected Terry to throw a curveball, which McCovey would pull again.
“I moved over just a little bit, and he hit the ball right to me,” Richardson said. “It was one of those balls like Mantle used to hit, with a lot of overspin. It looked like a base hit going to the outfield, but it came down in a hurry. He really hit it hard.”
The 1962 Series was the last the Yankees would win until 1977; the Giants are still waiting for their first title in San Francisco. Richardson retired in 1966, at age 31.The Yankees offered him a coaching position, but he was tired of the travel and instead became the head baseball coach at the University of South Carolina, serving from 1970 to 1976. He coached the sons of Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto and finished as the runner-up at the 1975 College World Series.
Richardson said he called in a favor once, asking General Manager Lee MacPhail to make good on a promise to take the Yankees to campus.
The Yankees went to South Carolina — and took the Mets with them.
“We played three innings against the Yankees, three against the Mets and for the last three innings they played each other under the lights,” Richardson said. “It put our team on the map.”
Richardson still sees his old teammates, but sometimes the occasions are somber. He has given eulogies for Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Dick Howser, Sam Suplizio, Enos Slaughter and, most recently, Clete Boyer.
He said people assumed he was a pastor, but he is not.
“I’m just a layman,” Richardson said. “But I was proud to do it. They were my friends.”

Old Timers 2009

Legendary jockey Willie Shoemaker was born in Fabens, Texas on this date in 1931.

Although he never won the Triple Crown Willie did register 4 Kentucky Derby, 2 Preakness Stakes, and 5 Belmont Stakes wins. Overall he won 8, 833 times, a record when he retired.